Paying tribute to Jesus Christ
The Rev. Ron Schermerhorn, who took over as pastor at Mount Chestnut Presbyterian Church, 727 W. Old Route 422, last summer has a special connection to Palm Sunday. He's walked Jesus' path in Jerusalem.
Schermerhorn said, “I've walked the route from the Mount of Olives to the Gate Beautiful.”
“It is a very moving experience to recognize that Jesus is so well known,” he said of his retracing Jesus movements in a trip to Jerusalem in March 2016.
We didn't walk the entire way. We walked about a mile of it,” he said.
And it's that act of entering Jerusalem that is honored every Palm Sunday.
“It commemorates and remembers Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem,” he said.
““The people laid their coats and palm branches in the street,” he said of Christ's procession. “It's a very moving experience.”
“Of course, after he went into the temple and overturned the money changers' tables, he became unpopular fairly quickly,” said Schermerhorn, leading to the events of Good Friday.
Schermerhorn's plans for Palm Sunday include a re-enactment of that event on a small scale.
“We will have our children at the beginning for the service walk through the church with palms,” said Schermerhorn. “We will have our children pass out palms to the congregation.
Schermerhorn said the palms for Mount Chestnut Presbyterian Church are supplied to the church by Judy Raisely, the owner of the Edward L. Raisely Funeral Home, 387 Main St., Prospect, and a church member.
Raisley said she has been supplying the palms for the Palm Sunday service for the past 10 years.
Raisley said she gets two different types of palms from a Butler florist.
“I order reed palms that the congregations takes home with them,” she said. “And jewel palms, they put them on the floor,” said Rasely. “They give the church atmosphere.”
“I think it is a celebration of Jesus Christ,” she said of the use of palms.
“The significance of Palm Sunday is Jesus Christ was riding into Jerusalem and was received as a king and it wasn't much later he was crucified by those same people,” said the Rev. James Kirk, pastor of Valencia Presbyterian Church, 80 Sterrett St., Valencia.
“He is the Lord of Lord, King of Kings and we should always receive him that way because of what he did on Palm Sunday, the work on the cross,” said Kirk.“We order palms for Palm Sunday and hand them out at the door,” said Kirk. “At the first hymn, we raise them and wave them much like they did in Jerusalem.”In addition to the added greenery, Palm Sunday means an added emphasis on the Passion of Christ, said the Rev. Richard Thompson, the pastor of Mater Dolorosa Roman Catholic Church, 409 N. Main St., Chicora, and St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, 864 Chicora Road, North Oakland.“It is the first time we have the longer readings from the Gospel of St. John, the whole narrative of the beginning of the Passion of our Lord and his entry into Jerusalem,” said Thompson.“We bless the palms at the 4 p.m. Saturday evening Mass,” said Thompson.“We bless the palms outside and process into the church and around the inside of the church,” he said.Sunday the palms are passed out to the congregation as its members enter the church.Ed Bloom, the owner of Bortmas the Butler Florist, 123 E. Wayne St., has been selling palm branches to churches for the past 38 years.“We sell mostly to churches,” said Bloom. “It comes in two types.“There is the palm crown, which is little strips that are peeled away from the center of an unopened palm,” said Bloom.“Then there is the emerald palm that are flat branches, an open, more mature palm that some churches put on the floor,” said Bloom.“I'm guessing that the palms come mostly from Central or South America or some of the islands where the palms grow,” said Bloom.The Rev. Eric Park, pastor of First United Methodist Church, 200 E. North St. said, greenery aside, Palm Sunday “is part of the wonderful liturgical calendar that frames all time in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.”“Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week that culminates in the celebration of the Resurrection,” said Park.“Practically speaking, Palm Sunday gives the church the opportunity to experience Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem that was celebrated with the waving of branches,” said Park.In addition to giving branches to worshippers as they leave, Park said First Methodist marks Palm Sunday by adding additional amounts of greenery to the altar.Park said, “It's to call to mind the way in which Jesus was celebrated upon his arrival in Jerusalem.”Still, Park said, it wouldn't do to forget where the week started by Palm Sunday is leading.“One of the newer realities of Palm Sunday is to make certain part of the story of the cross is shared in our worship,” said Park.“Some people go from Palm Sunday to Easter without remembering the reality of the cross, that it would be the same week Jesus had his greatest suffering.”
Kirk said his church joins with others in the Mars Ministerium for a community Good Friday service to emphasize its importance to the Christian faith.Kirk said, “He chose to come back to Jerusalem knowing what would happen, knowing he would be arrested and crucified. He chose to return because of his love for God's people.”After Holy Week, the palms still play a part in the church calendar, said Schermerhorn.“The ones (palms) that are left over, I will take them and burn them next year to make the ashes that are used for marking on Ash Wednesday. A lot of churches do that,” he said.Park said his church does not burn its leftover palm leaves to ash for Ash Wednesday because it is difficult to get the ashes to be the right texture.Mater Dolorosa's Thompson agreed the custom of burning palms to produce ash of Ash Wednesday is fading.“Not many parishes do that anymore,” he said. “You can buy the palm already ground up into ashes. It's so much easier to work with.”
